cannabisnews.com: Marijuana: Let's Find Better Causes To Serve





Marijuana: Let's Find Better Causes To Serve
Posted by CN Staff on June 10, 2006 at 07:27:44 PT
Editorial
Source: Anchorage Daily News
Juneau -- Alaskans -- with the exception of some medical patients -- are better off not smoking marijuana. And Alaska law enforcement is better off concentrating its efforts on more dangerous drugs, like methamphetamine.But the governor and allies in the Legislature were determined to recriminalize the use of small amounts of marijuana in the privacy of the home and succeeded in doing so by including provisions in a bill aimed at the meth trade.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska has sued to block the new marijuana law, arguing that it violates Alaskans' fundamental rights to privacy in their own homes, a view that has a history of support from the Alaska Supreme Court. The court has twice ruled that possession of small amounts for personal use in one's own home is protected by the Alaska Constitution.So now we can expect an expensive battle in court, with dueling expert witnesses about modern pot's potency and danger, passionate calls for public health, and passionate calls for individual freedom.Spare us.Would that common sense ruled the day. We already have laws that give police the means to halt the trade in marijuana, to arrest someone for smoking marijuana in public, to arrest them for growing operations. What the state Supreme Court has found in the past is that, on balance, marijuana is not such a threat to society that its use in the home should be considered criminal.Is there a contradiction here? Yes, possession in the home usually means purchase outside the home. But this contradiction served a practical purpose. If someone wished to indulge in their kitchen, law enforcers weren't going to waste precious resources on them. If someone aimed to profit by that indulgence, that was a different story. Snipped:Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/otmxjSource: Anchorage Daily News (AK)Published: June 10, 2006Copyright: 2006 The Anchorage Daily News Contact: letters adn.com Website: http://www.adn.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/Judge Asks State To Document Pot Claim http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21901.shtmlACLU Sues Alaska Over State's New MJ Lawhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21889.shtmlACLU Files Lawsuit to Protect Privacy Rights http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21888.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on June 11, 2006 at 11:21:45 PT
ekim
I have the article posted now. Thank you.
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Comment #16 posted by ekim on June 11, 2006 at 10:31:11 PT
American Scientist
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/AssetDetail/assetid/50773?&print=yes#50979Ranking psychoactive substances by their ratios of lethal dose to effective dose gives a general picture of how likely each is to precipitate an acute fatal reaction. By this measure, many illicit drugs are considerably safer than alcohol.
David SchneiderAmerican Scientist, May-June, 2006.  Volume: 94 Number: 3 Page: 206
http://www.saferniles.org
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Comment #15 posted by Hope on June 11, 2006 at 06:44:28 PT
McCaffrey
Must have believed that Rolling Stone interview with Clinton, where he said he thought cannabis had been decriminalized everywhere.What?
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Comment #14 posted by Hope on June 11, 2006 at 06:42:33 PT
Comment 6 EJ
I sure hope so!
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Comment #13 posted by Hope on June 11, 2006 at 06:40:19 PT
DEA Free America?
Wow! That would be a positive answer to a prayer!End the suspicion, the hunting of men for having a plant, and the persecution.
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Comment #12 posted by Toker00 on June 11, 2006 at 04:07:27 PT
Just a suggestion. 
Hey America. No I mean the REAL America. How about, instead of a Drug Free America, we have a DEA Free America?They have lied to us, harassed us, demonized us, beat us, killed us, taken our possessions, humiliated us, destroyed our relationships, torn up our possessions, killed our pets, tortured us, imprisoned us, and threatened to line us up against a wall and shoot us, all in the name of protecting us from a medicinal herb that can only help us all. Disband the DEA and reform the FDA. Leave ALL medical decisions up to Doctors and Scientists who look for the GOOD in medicinal plants, instead of looking for the bad that is not even there.Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #11 posted by freshy on June 10, 2006 at 13:48:01 PT
science...
science without money is nothing... u can't fight the dollar with truth. we have seen this time and time again...
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Comment #10 posted by runderwo on June 10, 2006 at 12:10:13 PT
whig
They are probably filing for declaratory judgement so that they don't have to endure a suit at an inconvenient later time. 
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 10:20:46 PT
One Way Or Another We're Gonna Getcha Getcha
Whig, That's why!
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Comment #8 posted by whig on June 10, 2006 at 10:16:57 PT
FoM #2
"The county is also suing the San Diego chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, because it threatened to sue the county..."Huh? What sort of cause of action is that?
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 10:01:38 PT
EJ Maybe
I'm at the point where conflicts are needed. We need to get the truth out there and maybe we will win then.
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on June 10, 2006 at 09:52:58 PT
Is there an opportunity here?
"So now we can expect an expensive battle in court, with dueling expert witnesses about modern pot's potency and danger, passionate calls for public health, and passionate calls for individual freedom."Perfect opportunity to get the press to cover the anti-carcinogen story.We've so much science on our side now, we're going to blow them out of the water, right?
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 09:25:04 PT
About Barry McCaffrey: Decriminalized?
Where have drugs been decriminalized? 
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on June 10, 2006 at 08:33:27 PT:
Normally, I don't engage in name-calling
But ol' Barry should change his last name to Bizarro (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bizarro ) as in the Superman comics!How can he say that illicit drugs have been decriminalized when 700,000+ people were arrested, and many of those jailed, for cannabis possession? Is this indicative of decriminalization?Honestly, what freakin' planet do these people come from? How did they get here? We should be more worried about such oddball immigrants than Mex interlopers; people like Barry Bizarro cause vastly more damage to society than anybody hopping the Rio Grande ever could...
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 07:41:39 PT
Ex-Drug Czar Shares Findings
June 10, 2006Drug addiction is a medical problem that should be treated as a chronic disease, according to experts gathered Friday at the Hyatt Regency Monterey for a national forum on drug and alcohol dependency.Illegal drug use in the United States "has by and large already been decriminalized," said former U.S. drug czar and retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey. The problem, he said, isn't that drugs are illegal, but that they cause mental, medical, legal and social problems.Complete Article: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/local/14787591.htm
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 07:38:44 PT
News Article from Snipped Source
Statutes Governing Medical Marijuana Core of The Issue***By Leslie Wolf Branscomb, Union-Tribune Staff WriterJune 10, 2006 San Diego County's lawsuit against state medical marijuana laws will be allowed to proceed, a Superior Court judge ruled yesterday. The county Board of Supervisors voted late last year to sue the state over its laws that permit the use of medical marijuana and require counties to issue identification cards to users. The county contends that those laws are in direct conflict with federal drug laws prohibiting any possession or use of marijuana.  
 
 
The county is also suing the San Diego chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, because it threatened to sue the county if the supervisors didn't begin implementing the state law that requires the identification cards and a database of users to be created and maintained by the county. Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20060610-9999-1m10norml.html
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 10, 2006 at 07:34:52 PT
State Constitution Protects Privacy of Garbage 
Court: State Constitution Protects Privacy of Garbage  
 
*** By Deborah Baker, Associated Press June 10, 2006 SANTA FE (AP) - The state Court of Appeals says the state Constitution protects the privacy of New Mexicans' garbage.That doesn't mean police can't search someone's trash, but generally they must have probable cause and a warrant, the court ruled Friday in a drug case from Lea County.The contents of an individual's refuse "are evidence of intimate and private affairs that are conducted within the home, the most protected of areas," the three-judge panel ruled."It is reasonable for an individual to have an expectation of privacy in these effects of the home" when the garbage is placed in a non-transparent container, the judges said.That privacy interest is protected by the section of the state Constitution _ Article II, Section 10 _ that protects New Mexicans from unreasonable search and seizure, the court said.That section has been interpreted by the New Mexico Supreme Court to provide greater privacy protections than its counterpart in the U.S. Constitution, the Fourth Amendment, the appeals court said. 
 
 
 
Relying heavily on a 1990 ruling in a New Jersey case, the court said the expectation of privacy is not unreasonable when the garbage is put in a garbage can or an opaque bag.And it's not negated just because the garbage is accessible to trash collectors, dogs or raccoons, the court said.The New Mexico Constitution "protects citizens from governmental intrusions, not intrusions from members of the general public, the trash collector, or nearby wildlife," wrote Judge Celia Foy Castillo.In the 2004 Lea County case, county drug task force agents took sealed garbage bags from trash containers in an alley behind a residence. Then they got a search warrant for the residence _ based on tips from unidentified informants as well as the garbage evidence _ and found drugs.Kevin Granville, who was charged with possession of crack cocaine and marijuana, argued that his rights were violated by the garbage search and that the informants' information in the affidavit used to get the search warrant did not meet legal standards.The trial court invalidated the warrant, and the state appealed. The appeals panel _ which included Judges Lynn Pickard and James Wechsler _ affirmed the lower court's ruling. 
Copyright: 2006 Associated Presshttp://www.freenewmexican.com/news/44842.html
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